Friday, March 23, 2012

THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN (Middle Grade)

by Katherine Applegate, with illustrations by Patricia Castelao

Harper-HarperCollins, 2012

A Book Review by Bigfoot

Imagine you’re forced to live in the same small room for twenty-seven years. There’s pretty much nothing to do. People walk by once in awhile to gawk at you. There’s not much to inspire the paintings you like to make. When you do paint, your paintings are sold in a gift shop—not because anybody thinks they’re great works of art, but because they were painted by a gorilla.

Did I mention you’re a gorilla in this scenario? No? Well, you are. You’re a silverback gorilla.

(F.Y.I.: I’m not a gorilla. I’m often mistaken for one. I don’t take offense, though. I like gorillas.)

The gorilla in this story, Ivan, doesn’t act much like a gorilla. It’s not his fault. He was taken from the jungle when he was young and then raised by humans. He doesn’t like to remember his jungle times. It’s sad thinking about what the humans who took him did to his family all those years ago. Ivan lives in the now. His “now” is a familiar kind of dreary that he accepts as the way his life will always be.

If that’s all there was to Ivan’s story, THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN would be a dreary and uneventful book, so you can probably guess that something happens to shake up his world. Judging by the cover, you can probably even guess that a baby elephant is involved somehow. (You’re right, but in the future try to avoid judging a book by its cover. It’s bad form.)

There’s a new baby elephant in the cage next to him who asks Ivan to tell her stories. He starts to tell her about his past and to remember all he lost when he was taken from the jungle. His memories get him wanting more out of life for himself. Mostly he worries about the baby elephant. He doesn’t want her to live a dreary life being forced to perform tricks for humans. Trying to get her into a better environment brings purpose to his life, and his art. His mission helps him rediscover what it means to be a gorilla.

Ivan’s gorilla way of looking at the world gives readers a lot to think about. Ivan has a special way of telling his story, too. He thinks humans use too many words, so he’s a get-to-the-point narrator. Most of the chapters are only a page or two long. Many are barely half a page. Just because the chapters are short doesn’t mean Ivan doesn’t have a powerful story to tell.

Review Policy

Unless otherwise noted, the books recommended on Bigfoot Reads are either checked out of a public library by one of the cryptids or purchased by Bigfoot.

The dream entries from Briar’s journal contain premonitions of books that will be published in the future. Briar’s dream self foresees the books’ summaries and knows which will likely appeal to each of her friends. Briar always wakes up before she can see whether her friends will enjoy the books.

Bigfoot Reads has a strict policy against recommending any book in which a dog dies.